Notes on Life with Enzo — according to mom & dad

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Enzo has shown great interest in our tablets, especially SWIPING. He enjoys moving around the menu screens more than playing the actual games. We have some of the same games on each of our android tablets (“babytoy”,”Temple Run”) and he will keep swiping left & right to find the icons for these 2 games.

On my niece’s Ipad 3 he enjoys playing a “cat” game. On my Nexus 10, he occasionally plays “Angry Birds”. The really strange thing is he almost always insists upon using an adult finger as a sort of stylus instead of touching the tablet directly. The only time he will touch it directly is when swiping through menus. He has tried playing “Angry Birds” once or twice with his own finger & ends up shooting the birds backwards.

New Expressions

Enzo now knows a few new expressions.

Gogogogo

…means to run as fast as possible the other direction, RIGHT NOW. I’ve found that when he doesn’t want to put his “clothes in the basket” , that if I append “gogogogogo” to it, he’ll then run over to the basket & slam dunk whatever I’ve put in his hand.

Clap

He knew about clapping before but didn’t always respond to it. He also often clapped at strange times (when angry/crying). He’s figured out you clap when you are happy (or when mommy/daddy tell you too – most of the time). Sometimes when his favorite shows come on after bath-time (“Scuba Dots”, “Wonder Box”, “The Notekins”) he’ll look at me (dad) to see if I’m excited, and if I say “yay!” and clap, he’ll start smiling & clapping as well.

Mama & mamae

Enzo has finally figured out that Mama refers to Ana Paula. He will ask for her when it’s her turn to dress him, and (for the first time today) when he’s hurt. After he fell down today & got a nasty lump on his head and was crying for several minutes, he said “mhmamammamama…mamamamam”. Sometimes he will say “mamae” as well.

“Manda beijo” (blow a kiss)

My niece has taught him “manda beijo” which means “blow me a kiss” and he does this by smacking his lips. We then cheer & he sometimes claps as well.

New behaviors

Reaching for things above head level
Enzo has also now started to reach for things on top of the table/countertop/kitchen island because is now CAN reach things there. So far he’s pulled an (empty) coffee cup off the table to look at it, Ana Paula’s bread on her plate, as well as anything else within reach.

Sometimes he will step back and tilt his head up to try to see what is on a shelf/platform that he couldn’t otherwise see (if he was closer to it). Then he’ll run up & attempt to grab whatever he was looking at.

Taking off his diaper

Enzo, for the first time (when out of view) took off his own diaper! We had come home from Lake Geneva and it was hot inside the house, so we let him run around in his diaper. He has figured out that it’s fun to get people to chase him around the house. Somtimes I feel like pac-man chasing a ghost as we circle the coffee table or island in the kitchen.

When my niece was playing with him, he was running from room to room in a pattern. My niece would lag behind and “find” him which he thought was hilarious. At one point, as my niece entered the room, she found a diaper on the floor! She then went to his normal hiding spot (next to a central AC vent) and found him peeing into it! We about died laughing.

Another funny thing he does is wave both his hands & arms when he gets excited. We’ve taken him out in front of the house (he LOVES going outside & HATES coming inside, no matter what the temperature/weather is) to play before, and when a car drives by he gets excited and waves both his arms. If the driver/passenger see him, they wave back!

Sitting in front of dad for story time.

I’ve always liked to read to Enzo with one leg crossed in front of me. I then place Enzo’s butt close to me with his knees raised over my leg. We’ve done this so many times that he now will walk over and butt drop into the right position and adjust his legs accordingly.

becoming the chased.

Enzo has always played hide and seek as the chaser. Just recently he realized it was fun to have someone chase him as well. We need to take breaks from time to time as he always wants to run full speed. He always runs in a particular pattern as well.

climbing down
Enzo has been trying to take big steps “down” instead of up. At the park he tried to step down from the Astroturf by the swings to the grass and ended up falling over and rolling. More recently he has been trying to step down by squatting with one leg and stretching the other leg towards the grass. He still needs a hand however due to his size.

running between the field and park
Enzo no longer likes just staying at the park but prefers to walk back and forth between the field and park over and over again.

discovering corn
During one meal enzo noticed that there were some corn cobs in plastic packaging on the table next to him. He reached over to touch them and apparently liked the texture so began to feel the entire length of the corn cob.

After dinner was over I let him get a closer look by bringing the corn to his highchair. His first reaction?…

toilet paper

Toilet flushing and handle rattling has always been one of Enzo’s favorite pass times. Then he discovered toilet paper…

Enzo is now tall enough to open our “extra” mini-freezer in the dining room where we usually keep ice-cream, pizza, and extra meat.

He is content to open it/raise the lid as far as his arms can extend & then let go. It makes a bit of a bang as the lid falls down. If there is a strong(er) seal, he sometimes can’t open the lid. This often happens after he drops the lid. The freezer is, of course, top-opening.

Emptying the candle drawer

As you can see in the above picture, we have a china buffet in the same room as the mini freezer (Kind of weird I know). At the opposite end of the china buffet (farthest from the freezer), we have a drawer with some candle holders, white was candles, and various miscellaneous accessories you may use for a nice dinner in the dining room (nothing fragile, and no silverware). Almost daily, Enzo tries to get into this drawer & takes the time to empty the entire drawer, piece by piece. He gives each piece to the closest adult & then goes back for the next piece. Of all the drawers in the China buffet, this is the ONLY one with a baby lock. All the other ones (spare dish towels, table cloths, etc) he doesn’t seem to have an interest in.

The “Sky car”

At the park, there is a piece of equipment I call the “sky car”. It really is nothing like a car, actually. This piece of playground equipment consists of a metal frame that has two posts in both ends and a single bar in the middle, kind of like “monkey bars”. However, the center piece that you’d swing from instead consists of an inverted roller-coaster type rail track, and functions similar to a zip-line (except instead of a zip line, you have the metal track). Enzo can ONLY reach this if I hold him up, but he likes to push the hanger in the track (very fluid, 4 wheels inside) so that it goes from one end of the track to the other. He pushes it similar to how he pushes his toy cars, so I call it the “sky car” — A “car” that he pushes in the “sky”.

Complaining at sleep time

For about 3-4 nights last week, Enzo would immediately get up and stand in his crib & complain for about 5-10 minutes as soon as we put him down. It got to the point that when it was colder, it was difficult to attach his sleep sack because he’d try to get up before we could get it on him. What is really interesting is that he’d scream for 5 minutes straight and then lay down & lay down and go to sleep immediately after that. Too much energy? Was he just trying to get it out of his system before bed?

Bath time – no longer sits down immediately!

Typically Enzo is super excited about bath-time. Even just a few months ago, when he’d see the tub of water he’d wave his hands & arms excitedly as I went to put him into the tub. No longer! Now he refuses to sit down until the FIRST toy he wants to play with is already in the tub. When I tell him (firmly) “sit-down!” he starts laughing & peeing in the tub.

I did an experiment one night by putting him in the tub with his diaper still on (of course he was standing). I changed his diaper just before putting him in the bathtub. I then told him sit down a few times over 60 seconds, removed the diaper, and then sat him down. His diaper had urine in it where it was clean just a few minutes before. His peeing in the tub then probably doesn’t have anything to do with him being naked, but (probably) rather that his feet are in warm water. He now pees about 80% of the time right after I put his feet into the warm water.

“Playing” with friends

The other day his friend Cristiano came over to play with him. My wife & Cristiano’s mom were talking while Enzo & Christiano were playing. After they were out of sight (kitchen), Enzo decided he was going to grab both ears of Cristiano and shake his head. Cristiano screamed in fright which scared Enzo & then Enzo screamed. Ana Julia saw the whole thing and told Enzo no. Enzo let go of Cristiano’s ears and started crying. I think he scared Cristiano who screamed & scared Enzo.

Cristiano came over a few days later & Enzo did not repeat this behavior, although he did show jealousy — wanting to play with whatever toy Cristiano wanted to play with. At this time Cristiano was about 22 mo & Enzo was 17 mo.

Public head banging

As I’ve mentioned before, Enzo has slowed down on head banging. It is no longer a daily occurrence, however it still does occur.

Ana Paula, Enzo & Ana Julia went to the mall last week. Enzo typically does not like to go into stores at the mall, I think because he is so short he can’t see anything. When he is in the “hallway” of Gurnee Mills, there aren’t clothes racks blocking him at every turn. As Ana went to turn into a store, Enzo got away from her and ran down the main Gurnee Mills hallway. Ana yelled “Stop! Don’t do that! NO!”. Enzo then bent over and started banging his head on the floor as people walked by! Ana Paula told me she just wanted to be invisible/disappear because she was so embarrassed !

Climbing/slides at the park

I’ve always found it strange that Enzo has strictly reserved his climbing activity for the stairs to the second floor. When at the park, if he comes to any ridge over an inch or two he will wait to take my hand and expect me to lift him over it or give him a hand so he can climb up it, even very small inclines/steps.

One day last week, when we came to the train at the park, I lifted him up onto the metal train platform (~ 2.5′-3′ above the ground) and then SHOWED him how to climb up onto the extended metal platforms (3″). While he was watching, I put one knee up on the platform, then one hand and then the other knee/hand & stood up — just like he does when he climbs up the stairs at home. I think something “clicked” for him as he then climbed anything small the rest of the time at the park by himself. It was amazing to watch!

The only bad part is he now climbs onto our fireplace ledge back home!

He’s also become too brave on the slide. Usually I’d sit him at the top of the slide, and he waits for me to be at the bottom to catch him. Now after I place him he tries to slide down immediately.

So far the results have been:

* Slide down sitting up straight and fall right out of the slide on his butt (still sitting up straight — reminded me of when willey coyote runs off a cliff, hangs in the air & then falls)
* Slide down and end up sideways near the bottom with his shoe wedged into the side of the slide
* Fall over sideways while sliding and bang head into the handrail on the slide.
* Roll over while sliding down, ending up on stomach sliding backwards down the slide.

Enzo now loves to play with my motorcycle helmet’s face shield when I get home from work. When I come home, I leave my helmet on as I enter the house. Enzo likes to touch my face shield. He hasn’t yet figured out how to lift it up and doesn’t yet apply enough force to close it after I open it for him. He thinks it’s pretty funny that he can see Dad’s face but can’t touch it.

Enzo also has a new favorite toy at the park. There is a xylophone-type apparatus that instead of a stick, has some metal pieces that you can “swing” to hit the keys.

There is also one that has a “bell” that you swing a musical note into that makes a much louder sound. He likes this as well, but not as much as the xylophone.

He also has developed a sliding technique for the slide. He will slide down by himself in the same position as someone stealing 2nd base might use (but feet first not head first) — one leg straight, one bent, head angled back. It looks pretty funny but I haven’t taken a video yet. I’m still scared he’s going to land on his head at the bottom of the slide.

This week Enzo has done a bunch of new and interesting things. One of them is…

Head banging

When Enzo gets angry or upset, he has started to bang his head against nearby objects. If nothing is nearby, he will spread his legs apart slightly wider than shoulder width, put his palms down on the floor and bend over and hit his head against the floor. I’ve been doing some googling of this and it appears about 20% of kids are head bangers. Apparently this is a way for infants (typically under 2 years of age) to express themselves since they can’t yet speak. What I’ve read is that kids typically know not to hit their head hard enough to hurt themselves. Of course parents still need to keep an eye out for injury and teach their children other ways of expressing frustration.

Yesterday morning Enzo tried this and before he could hit his head a second time, I gave him a hug and talked to him. This seemed satisfactory to him.

Airplanes and Waving goodbye

Two days ago was cousin Emma’s pre-birthday “birthday party.” Cousin Emma lives near O’Hare airport. When we took Enzo outside to play, he wouldn’t play on any of the backyard playground equipment or play with the other kids. Instead he would watch airplanes passing overhead. He apparently took this quite seriously (as per the expression on his face).

We’ve been trying to get him to wave goodbye for quite some time. At the party, he waved goodbye to uncle Troy before leaving.
He did this with both hands, one at a time. One of his hands was not in front of Troy, which consequently looked very funny.

Yesterday morning he waved goodbye to mom before I took him to the park. Mom was thrilled!

Today he waved goodbye to both Ana Julia and Mom before I took him to the park.

Rock moving

We have a fake plant in the main bathroom. The base of the plant is stuck into a kind of green foam. We have been covering this foam with small/smooth black and white rocks. A few days ago Enzo discovered this and took all of the rocks out, one by one and gave them to mom.

Backyardigan Fun

Last Thursday (2013-05-09), Ana Julia showed Enzo how to push on his Backyardigan doll’s stomach to have it talk.

Two nights ago Enzo woke up at about 3:30am. Mom woke up & gave him a bottle and he went back to sleep. About 4:45am, mom started hearing weird noises out of the baby monitor. Apparently Enzo had woken up because he wanted to play with his Backyardigan and it was making noises in the crib. About 45 minutes later, Enzo went back to sleep.

Now whenever I take him upstairs for bath time, he runs into his room and immediately jets toward his orange backyardigan to push on it’s stomach

Hi 5

Enzo finally has understood that “Hi 5!” means to hit someone’s hand.

Calling for mom

When Enzo gets ready for bed, the procedure is always the same:
1) I remove the gate and he crawls up the stairs. I stand behind him to catch him in-case he falls backwards.
2) He runs into his room where I mostly undress him and he puts his clothes in the basket..
3) We play “Where’s Enzo?” (He hides behind the end of the crib) and runs out & I cheer.
4) I check for poop and bag his diaper (& put a temp one on him — not doing this means he may pee on the floor).
5) He runs into mom & dads room, closes the door & turns on the light.
6) He runs around like a maniac while I make his bath. He then comes into the bathroom where I take off his diaper & put him in the tub
7) We wash/read/play.
8) Last thing we wash is his butt. I stand him up & wash him.
9) Usually mom comes in after this with a towel to take him to the bed to inspect him, dress him, and brush his teeth
10) After he is ready, we tell him to get his “pepe” which we always leave on the side of the tub. He runs into the bathroom to get this before we leave the master bedroom.
10) Enzo runs (or Dad carries him) into his room. We sing “Xau Xau Lua, Xau Xau Sol…” over & over as we close the blinds and pull the curtains closed over the window.
11) Dad or dad+mom read to him. Current books are “Nighty Night ” (Sesame Street), “Boa noite bebe Urso” or “Boa noite vaquinha”
12) Mom or dad feed him.

Today while doing #8, He started saying “ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma”, which I thought was hilarious because mom usually comes in with the towel shortly after. He knew bath time was over & it was time to see mom!

1) Eat your toes
2) Eat your hand
3) Put your clothes in the basket
4) Close the door
5) Turn on the light ( When we tell him to turn off the light, he does it and then turns it on again)
6) No!(in a loud stern voice — usually followed by crying)
7) Vem para papai/mamae
8) Da para mamae
9) xau xau
10) Let’s go to Enzo’s room
11) Where’s daddy?
12) Splish splash
13) Wanna bite? ( When offering the base of my thumb for him to teeth on, usually in the tub)
14) da Upa ( give a hug)
15) da um beijo ( knew 6 months ago but may have forgotten)
16) throw the ball
17) he knows when we put his shoes on he’s going outside

We are working on:
1) Put the book on the shelf
2) Do you want to go to the park?
3) slide

Enzo has now been to the playground four or five times. I usually put him in the swing first. He uses this time (and altitude) to check out the other kids at the park to see what they are doing. Next he wanders through the park to the other side — away from the swings.

Enzo on the swing

He climbs up the concrete steps on his hands and knees and then walks back and forth picking up sticks and pine combs from the sidewalk.

We’ve taught him to hand us food he doesn’t want instead of throwing it on the floor. This seems to have carried over to park cleaning as he hands me every rock, stick, wood chip and pine comb that he finds along his chosen path. Ironically enough I toss whatever he gives me into the grass.

Enzo cleaning

I try to get him to go back into the playground by physically picking him up and putting him there but he just continues cleaning! Must be mom’s genetics.

He will only occasionally play inside of the playground –only with things he can manipulate with his hands.

I sometimes go down the slides with him in my lap but he usually doesn’t seem to care either way if I take him on the slide or not.

Today I took him on his usual playground tour — swings , self-imposed sidewalk cleanup, and then on to two of the bigger slides. I then convinced him to go down the smallest slide by himself for the first time! His first try he fell over backwards while sliding down the slide and almost hit his head ( I caught him — hand on his back) . The second and third times he got stuck sideways near the bottom of the slide. The next few times down he made it nearly to the bottom but I had to get him off the slide myself. One time he tried to walk up the slide but ended up sliding down backwards and started laughing. After a few more successful runs, I figured that we had done pretty well for the day (and we’d already been at the park an hour) so we headed home.

Today after dinner I decided to have a can of mountain dew. Can you guess who was the most interested in that?

ENZO

I made sure that he didn’t cut himself, but let him touch the soda can. He was most interested in the top and not the bright colors on the can itself.

He first tested it for firmness by trying to push horizontally on the lip. After that he noticed the tab and pushed down on it (which of course didn’t do anything since it was already flat against the top of the can) and then the discovery happened!

Enzo tried to pry up the tab but his finger slipped and the tab made a “twang” noise. He then flashed the biggest smile. (Didn’t have a camera handy unfortunately).

For the next two minutes I could only hear twangtwangtwangtwangtwang.

Tomorrow I’m going to show him another can and see if he tries to “twang” the push tab first.

Yesterday I did not get to see Enzo. I left for work before he was awake and came home after he was asleep. I arrived home so late because I went to meet a friend (Benj Fitzpatrick) in downtown Chicago for dinner. I arrived home around 11pm and asked my wife what Enzo had done today.

Whenever I get home from work, my wife and I like to discuss things Enzo has done or is learning. One of the things we’ve been pushing is for him not to throw food on the floor when he doesn’t want it. We’ve asked him many times to hand us the food he doesn’t want. He is slowly getting better at this.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and Enzo, Ana Julia and my wife were out in front of the house. When Enzo was in the driveway, he began picking up rocks, sticks and trash and handing everything to mom ( because he didn’t want them?). However he also pulled some wild flowers out of the grass but instead of giving these to mom, he gave them to his cousin Ana Julia.

Prior to yesterday we have never taught him anything about flowers. I wonder how he made his decision…

Toys enzo likes:
Cars to push along the floor/eat
Plastic balls to throw/eat
Remote controls (working or not) to push buttons/eat
Books to flip through/eat (his butterfly book is missing 1/5 of one of the flip out pages!)

His 4 wheeled wooden horse to push (like a toy car)

His hippo to test the “bouncability of items”

The basement stairs for the same purpose

His telephone (doesn’t listen — just to push buttons)

“Babytoy”application for android
Wooden spoon for running around with and occasionally beating on pans with.

The pots and pans drawer (for bonus points he tried to throw the glass top down the stairs yesterday)

The cabinet locks when left open (found one on the basement stairs two days ago).

The shoe rack. He’ll pull off all the shoes and then run around the house holding one of moms pink and silver gym shoes by the shoe laces.

The wine rack — now cordoned off.

The dishwasher when open.
Closing and opening all doors and drawers. The louder they are when slamming shut the better.
The toilet handle. He likes to wiggle it to make noise and occasionally gets it to flush.
Dads belt